Mike,

Thank you for taking the time to create and send this list. I think it might
be helpful to those people who have built a site, or are thinking about
building a site with Publisher, to see an alternative.

I believe that the web-building component is a natural and logical extension
of Publisher capability that MS recognized and smartly targeted. No
professional, expert or "serious" web designer would use Publisher, a DTP,
to produce websites, or even care about it having that capability. However,
there is a large, targeted group of small businesses and others, where it
is.should be.or perhaps was, the right tool for the job.

They are the "non-expert" persons that already owns, or will purchase, and
uses Publisher to produce their print documents, and wants a web presence.
They are the small businessperson, hobbyist, etc., that want a fairly
simple, static site that they can build using their existing software and
skill set. They do not have the resources to hire an expert to build their
site, nor do they want to invest the money to buy FrontPage or invest the
time to learn the program, and would likely find it overkill for their
modest goals anyway.

I believe that Publisher is a good DTP, with which you can fairly easily
build a relatively simple, small, static website, and have seen examples
where people built some pretty impressive sites. I have always believed that
it is the skill of the person that wields the tool, that is more important
than the tool itself. If all you need is a basic site, and you already own
and know how to use Publisher, then I think it can be the "right" tool for
the job. But that is not to say that it is the "best" tool for the job. And
sometimes, given the limitations of Publisher, a person should move on to
something else, depending on what their goals are for their sites.

I think that Serif WebPlus is a good alternative, and I am glad you shared
your knowledge about the program. Your website is a great example of just
how good of site can be created. I think Nvu as suggested by Chuck is
another good choice: http://www.nvu.com/index.php And, of course FrontPage
and the new programs that MS will introduce to replace FP, are viable
alternatives. There are indeed many alternatives...

I got involved in the beta testing of Pub 2007, and along with David
Bartosik and others fought for changes. David is responsible for much of the
improvement of Pub 2003 over Pub 2002 for web building, and with the newest
version. Pub 2007 will be a better version than Pub 2003, but unfortunately
still has many of the limitations of Pub 2003. I am disappointed, and will
continue to say that Pub 2000 is probably the best version for web building
because of a different coding engine. And, now I must say, it may be
approaching the time for me to move on to a different program. I won't be
upgrading my Pub 2000 sites to Pub 2007.

My attitude in this newsgroup, has been to not criticize people for their
choice to use Publisher for building websites, but to give them answers as
to how best to use the program within the limitations. I have also chosen to
not criticize MS for what they have done...or not done. However, I think it
is also helpful to provide people with alternatives when Publisher is simply
too limited for what they want to do, so thanks again for outlining Serif
WebPlus. I just wish MS would fix the problems with Publisher. After looking
at WebPlus, its obviously possible.

I will get off my soap box now...;-)

DavidF